Anyone who’s spent serious time with a cat knows there are a myriad of ways to describe the feline mystery. They are inscrutable creatures. At times, indifferent. At others, intensely focused. Adorable and affable when they want to be. Experts of stealth. Part diva, part zen master.

The great Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.”

The tired diatribes of partisan politics may continue to capture the headlines in the coming campaign months, but there is one issue President Bush, Republicans, Democrats, student activists, Hollywood actors and most world governments are all agreeing on — Burma’s long-running military regime must end its repressive campaign against its own people.

World wars, civil wars, the Crusades, wars of rebellion and independence. Why does humanity continue to go to war when the cost of destruction and loss of human life end up becoming more than we can possibly imagine?

Along with death and taxes, one of the most predictable things in life seems to be political scandal, and for the past quarter century few comedy groups in America have done a better job of poking fun at our elected officials than the Capitol Steps.

Iranian-born author Farnoosh Moshiri writes about people who are enemies of the state, those who have disappeared, and those displaced by war and oppressive governments. And yet she breathes a light of hope into her characters, a chance for redemption despite all their suffering.